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Share your specialized collections

"Article Exchange within WorldShare Interlibrary Loan is not just a great thing for our staff, it's also a great thing for our users, because it means that electronic delivery of book chapters and articles happens often within 24 hours."

Karl Stutzman, Assistant Director of Digital Library Services

The library collection at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary reflects the strengths of the institution. "Areas where we're strong include Biblical studies, peacemaking and Anabaptist Mennonite theology," explained Assistant Director of Digital Library Services Karl Stutzman. This small graduate-level institution strives to make its specialized collections available to anyone who may benefit from them. In addition, he continued, "we can't possibly support the breadth of all the kinds of things that people on campus will need. We need to rely on our partners in other libraries to fill out the collection needs that we have here."

WorldShare® Interlibrary Loan (ILL) allows the library to facilitate what Karl refers to as "the give and take nature of ILL that is important to maintain." Karl remembers starting in the library at a time when ILL frequently involved mailing photocopies to other libraries. "Then we moved to scanning and emailing those documents, but now we can do that all from within WorldShare ILL" through Article Exchange, he said. "It's a total dream compared to what we were doing just five or six years ago."

"We've seen our requests go up, even as our student body has stayed the same, which indicates to me that there is increasing value in those articles being delivered faster and the request process being easier." --Karl Stutzman

"Having Article Exchange as a part of the workflow within WorldShare ILL has really improved how we can provide service to our users," Karl added. In this small seminary, serving and connecting with users is essential. As Eileen Saner, Director of Library Services, said, "I love being able to relate to our users and to see how they grow in their capacity to use our resources." She added, "We're also pleased, very pleased, to share the resources we have that aren't widely available in other libraries."

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary librarians access WorldShare ILL with a PALNI group subscription to WorldShare Management Services. "Through PALNI," Eileen said, "we have access to expertise and programs that we would never be able to afford on our own as a very small theological library." She continued, "We want to offer our users the same range of services they would find in a larger institution. Through PALNI and through OCLC, we are able to do that."